SECRETE
Kate MccGwire: Catalogue
Galerie Michael Haas, 2015
'MccGwire is fascinated by dramatic opposites such as beauty and revulsion, the unwholesome and ordered, the familiar and alien, and her unusual choice of feathers as a medium provides an arresting visual language with which to explore such ideas. She uses pigeon feathers, for example, as they embody a particularly contradictory reputation. Popularly known as 'rats with wings', pigeons are considered dirty and carriers of disease. Meanwhile, white doves – they are in fact the same species as pigeons – are regarded as symbols of peace, purity and fertility. Depending on the context, they either attract or repulse us. By elevating moulted pigeon feathers – a natural waste product – to the rank of art MccGwire perfectly communicates this duality.'
